All you Get is Me by Yvonne Prinz

Title: All You Get Is Me

Author: Yvonne Printz

Publisher: Harper Collins

Publication Date: December 21, 2010

Source: Bought eBook

Summary: A summer of love, loss, and justice.

Things were complicated enough for Roar, even before her father decided to yank her out of the city and go organic. Suddenly, she’s a farm girl, albeit a reluctant one, selling figs at the farmers’ market and developing her photographs in a ramshackle shed. Caught between a troublemaking sidekick named Storm, a brooding, easy-on-the-eyes L.A. boy, and a father on a human rights crusade that challenges the fabric of the farm community, Roar is going to have to tackle it all—even with dirt under her fingernails and her hair pulled back with a rubber band meant for asparagus.

Review: All you Get is Me is a book the deals with some heavier topics, illegal immigrations, immigrant rights, and love is one of its lighter topics.

Roar is our main character is this book. To me, she was very hard to connect to. There was just something about her that I just couldn't figure out. She was a nice girl but I never felt like I knew her. Nothing about her made her relatable to me.

The romance and the love interest were very well done, though! Roar and Forest were adorable. This was probably the only time that I could connect to Roar. But Forest was a cutie. They were always doing the cutest little things. Plus their romance is a tad forbidden. Forbidden romance never fails to make a story interesting.

The only other complaint I have is the pacing. At times I was captured in the pages of All You Get is Me. At others I was bored out of my mind. It wasn't a very pleasant experience. The story had me interested but sometimes the pacing was just a little off.

Speaking of the plot, I really liked how Roar's dad was fighting for immigrants from Mexico. You see, Forest's Mom killed an illegal immigrant in a car crash, which gets Roar's dad upset. This also makes their romance "forbidden."

 It makes the book have something that a lot of books don't have these days. Roar does her own part to support the immigrants and her exchanges with them are heart-warming.

In a sentence, All You Get is Me is a book that broaches things you don't see a lot of in YA. Even though the main character and the pacing weren't always amazing, this proved to be a solid book. I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for something different in YA.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Sorry for the extra lengthy review!

Perfect Cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Perfect Cover
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Laurel-Leaf
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
Source: Bought

Summary: Bayport High’s Varsity cheer squad is made up of the hottest of the hot. But this A-list is dangerous in more ways than one. The Squad is actually a cover for the most highly trained group of underage government operatives the United States has ever assembled. They have the perfect cover, because, beyond herkeys and highlights, no one expects anything from a cheerleader.

Review: If you're looking for the book with the perfect combination of cheerleaders and not so ditsy blondes then Perfect Cover is the book for you!

But whose  actually looking for that? I certainly wasn't. But Perfect Cover manages to incorporate cheerleaders that know how to kick some serious bad guy butt. In fact these cheerleaders are spies.

I loved how Barnes turned something like cheerleading into an idea that makes them spies and sweet girls who have each other backs. In fact, that was one of the things I liked most about Perfect Cover. The girls have each other's backs through the entire thing. There was no double crossing, lying, or cheating anyone. It was just very refreshing to not have a group of girls trying to back-stab each other.

Barnes has the most hilarious writing. I saw that in the first book I read by her, Raised by Wolves, and I saw it even more in a older book. Toby, our main character, has the most hilarious, snarky dialogue that I've read in a long time. She's a character that makes you want to laugh all the time. I wouldn't say that she was particularly deep but I feel that she and the others have the potential to become that in the next, and final, book.

There was never a dull moment in Perfect Cover. The girls were always on some sort mission and doing some super funny things.

Overall, Perfect Cover is an almost perfect book. It had a few discrepancies but other than that, I had an absolute blast reading it. Like Ally Carter said on the front cover, "...you'll never look at cheerleaders the same way again." This is so true.


Rating:

In My Mailbox (54)

Hi and Happy IMM! IMM is hosted by The Story Siren to share books we got during the week!

This week was pretty awesome! I added in a piece of something else too...!

So you can see the hint of a black thing in the top of the picture. I guess it was just an excuse to show you a really pretty picture!

But the books!

Truth or Dare edited by Liz Miles

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Amplified by Tara Kelly

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (library)

NOT included: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa. A friend borrowed this one.

Yes, a beautiful picture that I took. I'm quite proud of it! Sorry I just couldn't resist.

That's all of my craziness of the day! 

What did you get?

What to Read (7)

This week's topic is: 

MYSTERIES!

There is a very sad number of mysteries in YA that are worth a darn. Here are some of my favorite ones.

 The Agency series by Y.S. Lee. Included A Apy in the House, The Body at the Tower and The Traitor in the Tunnel, with a fourth one scheduled for release. The third hasn't been released in the US yet but I'm sure it will be amazing. These are set in Victorian London and are about Mary Quinn, who works for the Agency. The Agency is a group of women doing detective work! This is one of my favorite series!

The Death By Series by Linda Gerber. These books are a little older. Do NOT let the cutesy covers deter you from reading these. What's on the inside is hardly cute. Well the romance is but otherwise these are amazing mysteries! Nothing little kid about them. 

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber has one amazing historical mystery. So far. I'm not quite done with this one but I just had to feature it. I really, really like this book. If I finish it before the end of the week, I'll remove this. Still, a very good book!

Do you want to make me jump up and down with glee? If so, mention Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey. I LOVE this book. The mystery, the characters, the romance. The mystery is so hard to figure out!

The Midnight Tunnel by Angie Frazier is technically a Middle Grade Novel. But the narrator Zanna does not read like some little kid. The mystery in this one is top notch. 

That's all for me! What are some of your favorite mysteries?

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

Title: Darker Still
Author: Leanna Renee Hieber
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: November 1, 2011
Source: Bought (also received from Netgalley)

Summary: The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Pride and Prejudice, with a dash of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

New York City, 1882. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart's latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing...

Jonathan Denbury's soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul.

Review: Darker Still is a fantastic historical fiction that has hints of just about everything it in.

Natalie, though sometimes lacking, was a character that I immediately liked. It's really hard not to like her. She's sweet, has some serious guts and on top of that she's mute. She was definitely one of the reasons I liked this book so much.

Lord Denbury, my oh my. What a character! Denbury is pretty much a perfect guy. He's charming, gentlemanly and a doctor. He's pretty much adorable. And good-looking.  Natalie's and his love was a tad insta. I didn't mind this too much because there was some possible background on why these two felt that way. Darker Still definitely doesn't have bad insta-love. Let's just say he stole my heart.

The only thing that rubbed me a little wrong was the characters. I love them! But they just aren't the kind of characters that you'll carry in your mind for a long time. It disappointed me.

The storyline of Darker Still captured me. I loved all the different magic that was incorporated with some different mythology. The story is told in Natalie's diary entries that were well done. Usually I'm not a fan of diaries but this was amazing.

One of the reasons it was so amazing was the writing. Oh my goodness it was gorgeous. There wasn't a moment where I felt like I was in the real world. It was insanely vivid. The writing, like the plot, was pure magic.

Darker Still has all the aspects of a great historical with fantasy elements. To me, it certainly lived up to what I was expecting. It has sweet characters, an adorable love story with quite a bit of magic mixed in.

Darker Still is a book I'd definitely recommend!

Rating: 4.5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday (43)

Hi and welcome to Waiting on Wednesday hosted by Breaking the Spine to share books we can't wait to read!

This week's pick is:

Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook
January 3, 2012

Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother.

But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling—her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts. Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. 

Other than the dismal cover, this book looks really good! Ghosts, (in)sanity, Gothic mansions...oh yes please! January is such a good month for releases!

Teaser Tuesday (4)

Hi! No I will not be doing this often. I just thought I would share some particularly awesome phrases from the book I'm reading!

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB of Should be Reading!

Rules:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Teaser: "My fingertips grazed his cheek, down to his chin, brushing his lips. Exquisite sensation. This was not how two persons introduced themselves..."-Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber


Oh my, this book is good! Lines like that show just how beautiful of writing is contained within the pages!